Dairy to turn manure into energy

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, August 7, 2008

A regional dairy has found a way to turn its manure into something good and, in the process, perhaps help change the image of a Panhandle town.

Ground was broken in Hereford on Wednesday on a renewable natural gas facility at the Cnossen Dairy.

According to information provided by the Environmental Power Corporation of Tarrytown, N.Y., the company building the facility, it "will generate methane-rich biogas from manure and other wastes through anaerobic digestion, purify the biogas to natural gas standards and distribute it via a commercial pipeline."

At full capacity, the release said, the facility should generate 635,000 MMBtu per year.

"That is equivalent to 4.5 million gallons of heating oil and enough to heat about 11,000 homes or generate nine megawatts of electricity," the release stated.

Mark Hall, senior vice president of Environmental Power Corporation, said the company has a similar facility in Stephenville and is building one in Dublin.

He said the company's business model requires three things: a concentration of animals producing manure, the chemicals necessary to digest that waste and access to natural gas transportation infrastructure. He said all three of those exist in the Texas Panhandle.

Hall said the capital investment for such a plant is in the neighborhood of $18-$20 million, with much of that expense tied up in the process of turning the biogas into pipeline-quality natural gas.

For that reason, Environmental Power has to take into consideration the economy of scale.

"We are targeting locations where we can process manure from at least 5,000 cows, but more like 10,000 cows," Hall said.

He said an added advantage of the process is that it should result in a net reduction of odor. Instead of sitting in open lagoons, the waste will be brought in and processed in a closed system.

Bob Josserand, mayor of Hereford, said he is happy for the capital investment in the county.

What is just as important to him, though, is the opportunity to change his community's image.

He pointed to the perception that Hereford is a dirty, smelly, cow town.

"For a long time, we were criticized that maybe we don't care," he said.

By bringing in an industry that can turn a smelly waste product into useable natural gas, Josserand said, that shows the community does care about the environment.

Josserand went on to say that while the natural gas facility is tied to the dairy, similar facilities can be constructed to handle feedlot waste, although it has to be hydrated because it is drier than dairy waste, or even some forms of garbage.

"If we could convert our city waste to methane, that would be a great benefit to us," he said.

Hall said his company is interested in looking at other areas that have the three components needed to support a plant.

"To the extent that all three of those factors come into play, we are interested in doing more projects in Texas and the Texas Panhandle," he said.